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We have declared acts of memory unnecessary to the stars, but
we allow them perceptions, hearing as well as seeing; for we said
that prayers to them were heard- our supplications to the sun,
and those, even, of certain other men to the stars. It has
moreover been the belief that in answer to prayer they accomplish
many human wishes, and this so lightheartedly that they become
not merely helpers towards good but even accomplices in evil.
Since this matter lies in our way, it must be considered, for it
carries with it grave difficulties that very much trouble those
who cannot think of divine beings as, thus, authors or
auxiliaries in unseemliness even including the connections of
loose carnality.
In view of all this it is especially necessary to study the
question with which we began, that of memory in the heavenly
bodies.
It is obvious that, if they act on our prayers and if this action
is not immediate, but with delay and after long periods of time,
they remember the prayers men address to them. This is something
that our former argument did not concede; though it appeared
plausible that, for their better service of mankind, they might
have been endowed with such a memory as we ascribed to Demeter
and Hestia- or to the latter alone if only the earth is to be
thought of as beneficent to man.
We have, then, to attempt to show: firstly, how acts implying
memory in the heavenly bodies are to be reconciled with our
system as distinguished from those others which allow them memory
as a matter of course; secondly, what vindication of those gods
of the heavenly spheres is possible in the matter of seemingly
anomalous acts- a question which philosophy cannot ignore- then
too, since the charge goes so far, we must ask whether credence
is to be given to those who hold that the entire heavenly system
can be put under spell by man's skill and audacity: our
discussion will also deal with the spirit-beings and how they may
be thought to minister to these ends- unless indeed the part
played by the Celestials prove to be settled by the decision upon
the first questions.
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